I think the best way to go would be to create sub-categories. Yes, photos of physical 3D works are more than just photos, but then music is more than just multimedia, there are lots of furry musicians, and a case could be argued that music deserves its own category too. If you have a lot of different categories, you risk the navigation being a little convoluted, to say the least--and let's be honest here: I've heard a few people say they think the layout of FN is already a bit confusing so far.

So how about:

Artwork>Visual/Crafts

Written>Stories/Poetry/Prose

Photography>Fursuits/Events

Multimedia>Music/Video/Podcasts

Perhaps you could use the tag system to distinguish one sub-category from another, and any links/tabs could just be a tag call. Adding a submission to a sub-category could just add its corresponding tag to the tag list. That way the sub-categories are a little less cluttered, already integrated with an existing system, and easy for contributors to label.

If I may add to this, I think it's important to flesh this out a little more. Series can do with more than just a back/next button, frankly. The ability to follow a series, be it visual or written, would be great. A notification when a new part is added to a series or when a series is finished, or when a favorite artist begins a new series, would really make this feature special and very useful.

With apologies for the delay, username changes are what I was referring to. :3 I like having my username in sync with my display name, and I'm sure many people do too. That's always complicated on the backend though. If it can be done, that would be great.

I'd honestly say that the biggest reason FA keeps winning the popularity contest is because no one wants to move away because their friends and submissions are already there. FN and other sites are already much more solidly built.

That said, your idea is very sound. I find that I rarely pay attention to the activity feeds. I visit a userpage to learn more about the person and see his work, not to see his breadcrumb trail around the site. New posts, favorites, promotes, and follows can be represented through better means.

I do love the way fimfiction.net has things laid out. It works less like a list of stories and more like a hub for the user's written work.

I agree; perhaps if you get to that submission by selecting a comment, it highlights the comment in question so you can spot it quickly.

Has anyone ever been to Y!Gallery? It has a really good group system over there.

That's the thing that this idea prevents. Either party involved can upload it and offer the other party the opportunity to claim it and automatically add it to his or her drafts. You don't have to wait for any one person to upload it; you can upload it yourself, and it will go to the other person's gallery if he or she allows it.

That would work, yes, but only if everyone sticks to using FN's commission system, which would be important to consider. Some artists may still prefer to use the usual methods of commissioning, especially in coordination with their existing methods of working, and how things are done on other sites where they store their work, and the fact that FN's system involves a fee (however fair that fee may be). This system could be a thing to encourage more people to use it, or it could be something that doesn't make a difference to them if they don't want to use the in-house commission system.

One thing that's also important is linking back to the artist, making it clear from the get-go that the submission is a commission from ARTIST, and for USER. That eliminates the need to link back to an artist's or a commissioner's page in, say, the descriptions (where people may not see said link-backs unless they hit the "Read More" link), makes it easy to do so the artist gets credit for his work and the commissioner gets credit for his idea and characters more often, and keeps said credit nice and visible so there's no confusion and viewers can be led to sources of really great work or really great characters.

If you want to get really fancy, you could link submissions together such that a view or favorite or comment of this commission on for example the commissioner's page also means a view or favorite or comment of that commission on the artist's page.

Good idea. Some artists like to make special pieces for when they reach certain amounts of hits.